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Worker attitude, multinationals challenge unions

Local unions celebrated Monday’s Labour Day holiday with a traditional parade followed by fun activities for workers and their families at the Roberta Bondar tent.

The annual holiday, the last of the summer season, comes at a time when unions face their own challenges, with declining membership — down to about 25 per cent of the Canadian workforce — and employers and governments looking for ways to improve productivity and cut costs that union leaders say threaten the hard-won rights, working conditions and benefits of union members.

A local leader with the Sault Ste. Marie’s largest union and an adjunct professor at Algoma University reflected on the historical role the union has played in our community, and what unions must do to survive.

Mike Da Prat, Local 2251 United Steelworkers’ president who was first elected in 2003 and currently serving his fourth term, said that back in the 1950s and 1960s, when wage earners at the steelmaker totaled around 13,000, more than six times the workforce at the plant today, a much different atmosphere and attitude among employees was a reflection of society in general.

A much more communal spirit in the city, where entertainment revolved around backyard barbecues and parties among neighbours, spilled over to the workplace, he said.

“Unions provided a community of support where membership meetings provided a place where you could voice your problems and concerns and get union support,” he said.

“A sense of brotherhood was very important because they knew also that the better working conditions, health and safety benefits and higher wages were achieved by the union.”

That began to shift gradually through the 1970s as new employees joined the workforce who were generally better educated, more “aloof”, “self-entitled” and focused on themselves and their own families, Da Prat said.

“The older employees needed the union meetings as a forum where they could express their concerns.

“Among the newer workers, the attitude shifted to ‘When I need the union, you’d better be there. But until then, I’ve paid my dues so leave me alone’”.

With the arrival of television and then the computer, people in general became more family oriented and isolated from their neighbours, Da Prat said.

In the workforce, this coincided with the employer “bearing down”, demanding higher productivity and cutting jobs, which also reduced social interaction and communal spirit in the workplace.

Labour Day celebrations today are more a shadow of what they once were for many of the same reasons, he pointed out.

Many people and workers view it as the last big holiday marking the end of the summer season, the weekend they drive the kids to university, or go to camp, and less a communal event to celebrate organized labour’s achievements.

Central among the challenges unions are up against today and for the future is the reality that they are facing off against large multinational owners with substantial resources, Da Prat said.

“What the multinationals do is they push against the laws and legislation, and say they are properly conducting themselves within the boundary of the legislation,” he said.

“The problem is that in Ontario, and probably the rest of Canada, the legislation is the minimum standard.”

In most cases related to health and safety, as a prime example, the union has negotiated within the collective agreement standards that are better than the existing legislation, he said.

The problem is that the government and more specifically the provincial Ministry of Labour, only enforce the minimum standards and sometimes not even that.

“The Ministry of Labour claims they can only enforce the act itself and not additional safeguards negotiated between the employer and the union.”

On a related point, he said in the old days disputes around collective agreements were more easily resolved.

Today companies rely heavily on legal interpretations and fine points that often conceal the facts, he said.

“Health and safety issues are not getting addressed because the investigative procedures aren’t working properly, and our committee is not working properly,” Da Prat said.

“Issues are decided on the basis of the evidence of the legal arguments alone. The union is fighting that all the time.”

Nevertheless, Da Prat acknowledged unions have to become proficient in using legal language in a quasi-legal form in order to be successful in upholding workers’ rights.

“We are going to have to be able to craft and defend legal language.

“Using an aggressive approach during negotiations,” he said, “those days are gone.”